Inquest into Irish mans balcony death reports he was trying to get into a friend’s apartment

The inquest into the death of Robert Robison from Wicklow who died one month after he fell off a fourth floor balcony of an apartment block in Bangkok’s Lat Krabang district has reviled that the 32 year old was attempting to get into a friend’s apartment block without disturbing the occupants.

During the inquest the Coroner’s Court in Dubln heard that Robinson had just spent six weeks in Ireland for his mothers fiftieth birthday and for his friend’s wedding. He had been working as a scaffolder in Christchurch New Zealand and stopped off in Thailand to visit a friend on his way home.

Martina Fox, the man’s mother said that he had been due to stay in Bangkok for three days, but on the second night, June 21 she got a call from the friend he was visiting to say that he had had a very serious fall from the balcony and the man did not expect him to survive. She went on to tell the inquest that could not believe what she was hearing. There was no investigation by the Thai police so the family had to piece together what happened form Robert’s friend and his neighbor.

The friend told Mrs. Fox that he had just moved into a new apartment with his two children and on the second night he and Robert went out for drinks. He returned to the apartment alone when it was time for the baby sitter to leave and later, Robert, who did not have a guy arrived at about 12.04. He told Mrs. Fox, he was trying to get into the apartment and was knocking on the door, but the neighbor stopped him telling him he was waking everybody up. Robert, afraid he would wake the kids and other residents saw that the bedroom window was open and thought he could use his scaffolding skills to enter the building , however when he stood on the balcony and reached round to get into the bedroom he fell.

Mrs. Fox told the inquest that her son would have thought nothing about the height involved and went on to say that she and the family struggled with language barriers when she first arrived in Thailand and local doctors wanted to turn off his life support. She said that she had tried to find somebody in Beaumont Hospital that could understand the scans and that on day eight Robert had moved his head but the doctors told her that was impossible. A later brain stem test showed minimal activity.

The family then started a major fund raising drive as medical bills mounted and they organized to fly him home in a passenger plane Mrs. Fox said she was convinced that if she got her son home he would be OK. However he never regained consciousness and died on July 20t following confirmation of brain stem death. Two people received organ donations on his death. The postmortem found that his death was due to serious head injuries. Mrs. Fox told the coroner Brian Farrell that she is haunted by the possibility her son could have recovered, however tests carried out at the Beaumont confirmed there was no chance of recovery. The verdict was returned as accidental death.